LUTE is also a musical instrument with strings.—The lute consists of four parts, viz. the table, the body or belly, which has nine or ten sides: the neck, which has nine or ten stops or divisions, marked with strings: and the head or cross, where the screws for raising and lowering the strings to a proper pitch of tone are fixed. In the middle of the table there is a rose or passage for the sound; there is also a bridge that the strings are fastened to, and a piece of ivory between the head and the neck to which the other extremities of the strings are fitted. In playing, the strings are struck with the right hand, and with the left the stops are pressed. The lutes of Bologna are esteemed the best on account of the wood, which is said to have an uncommon disposition for producing a sweet sound.
Lutetia. LUTETIA PARISIORUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of the Parisii, in Gallia Celtica, situated in an island in the Sequana or Seine. It received its name, as some suppose, from the quantity of clay, lutum, which is in its neighbourhood. J. Caesar fortified and embellished it, from which circumstance some authors call it Julii Civitas. Julian the apostate resided there for some time. It is now Paris, the capital of France; so called from its name Parisis in the lower age.